AFTER three weeks of complex air activities, much of which took place over the North-East, the largest military exercise to be run by the Royal Air Force in the UK for many years has concluded.

Codenamed Crimson Warrior, the exercise involved personnel and aircraft from the RAF, the Royal Navy, British Army, along with the United States Marine Corps and United States Air Force. Fast jets, multi-engine aircraft, helicopters and Unmanned Air Systems operated from stations across the country including those in North Yorkshire and the North-East. Incorporating large scale tactical training, the exercise began in October and involved more than 70 aircraft completing a range of missions. It also marked the end of demanding qualified weapons instructor courses, aimed at training selected personnel in their individual warfare speciality or aircraft.

Exercise director, Group Captain Rob Barrett, said: “Ex Crimson Warrior is the UK’s premier live airborne tactical training event of the year and the directing staff from the Air & Space Warfare Centre’s 92 Squadron have taken great pride in delivering this extremely demanding and complex exercise.”

The UK’s Lightning Force and their USMC counterparts took part in the challenging and testing complex, air exercise. Their advanced fifth generation aircraft, F-35B Lightnings were spotted over North Yorkshire to the delight of local aircraft enthusiasts.

In addition to the fast jets, the exercise incorporated a huge number of aircraft conducting qualified multi-engine tactics instructors, QWI Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and qualified space instructors courses. Voyager aircraft conducting air to air refuelling sorties mostly off the North-East coast could also be seen traversing at high level.

A key part of Crimson Warrior was to test joint personnel recovery. Working alongside the Chinook Force to react to “downed aircrew” scenarios, RAF Regiment Gunners trained teams and practised these skills.

In addition to “downed aircrew” recovery, Joint Helicopter Command provided a formidable rotary package to the exercise, combining both land and maritime training scenarios. They were a familiar sight across the skies of North Yorkshire, clattering at low level whilst conducting the training tasks.

The congested air picture tested tactics and procedures of its aircrew across the third week of Crimson Warrior. Royal Navy Lynx Wildcat and Merlin helicopters were joined by RAF Chinook and Puma at RAF Leeming in a wave of close cooperation.